The Plot: We begin our story with Sarah travelling along with her lover in her car while she is five months pregnant. Unfortunately just as we are introduced, they are involved in a head-on collision that brings an end to the life of Sarah’s lover. Four months later, and the baby is all but due. She has one night before she is supposed to come in and have the delivery, and as she gears up for her last night alone – she hears a knock at the door. At the door is a woman hidden in the shadows, who desperately wants in. At first she makes excuses, and then begins to refer to Sarah by her first name. This spooks Sarah who begins to lock all the doors, before seeing this woman in her backyard. This strange woman punches the glass door and sends cracks through it just as Sarah calls the police. Once the cops arrive the woman is nowhere to be found, and they leave Sarah to spend the night by themselves offering to send patrols out throughout the course of the night. Sarah is comforted… but this is only the beginning of her night because the woman… she comes back.

The Review: Inside is a flick that just seems to be popping up all over recently. I had heard about it first from a mixed martial arts forum I visit, to let you know how mainstream this one is getting. Not from a foreign film board, not from any film geek fans. I heard about it through a fight forum. So, being a fan of gory horror – hearing all of these guys who might not have seen the same obscure gems that many of my readers may have, I figure I might as well give it a shot but I was not going to let myself get hyped up. I still hold a grudge against The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover because of how “grotesque” I had heard it was before finally seeing it, and was introduced for the first time to the fact that there are different audiences all over. What an art-house fan, who is not accustomed to the terrible little Italian zombie movies out there that are just chock full of gory violence, might consider to be a total gory sleazefest and what a gorehound would consider disgusting are two things from completely different vantage points. So, hearing about all this gory insanity that paints the walls in the movie Inside from this select demographic – well, I wasn’t expecting much. However, the best I was hoping for is another film from France that could hope to emulate the brilliant moments of Haute Tension which in many ways I really liked. In some others though, I was a bit let down by it. Mostly due to the tremendous hype following it, thus when picking up Inside I was more than aware to simply set my expectations a little lower than I normally would – and sure enough, I had a pretty good time! Well… let’s just say I enjoyed the film, saying you had a good time while watching “Inside” just sounds barbaric.

The real question my gorehound friends in a similar situation might be asking though: is the gore here really that brutal? Yes and no… make that, mostly no. Truly the most graphic thing about the film is simply the brutality inflicted upon a pregnant woman and depending on the audience member this may be much more disturbing than your average slasher violence. It certainly effected me in a different manner than such gore would normally, and I wonder if that doesn’t maybe get to most audiences more than the actual gore on display. I’ll just say that no, Inside is not breaking my top ten goriest horror films of all time although it could possibly make an appearance in the top 20 due to how horrific the violence can be at times – but you just have to occasionally remind yourself just who the majority of the audience is for this film. Anyhow, with that aside, is it a good film and is it worth seeing? Absolutely. No question, Inside is a film wraught with tension and actually delivers in the horror department. Crafting characters the audience can care for, and putting them through as much an emotional rollercoaster as the one that our main lead is forced to endure. A truly brutal, grotesque, frightening and beautiful experience – rushing through the cinematic pipeline directly to your retina. Although not perfect by any longshot, it certainly beats the boring slashers and cheap remakes of Asian ghost storiest still somehow dominating the market here in the states.

The film drops the ball somewhat in the third act, delivering a twist of sorts that never seemed to click with me. However, if you have any familiarity with Dario Argento (who I would feel comfortable stating as an influence on this picture) then you know both what to expect and how to deal with it. I suppose they call them “twists” for a meaning… that they’ll twist your brain until all rational sense gets depleted. Regardless of the somewhat dissapointing finale – the film does work with it and overall delivers a tremendous and breathtakingly fresh look at horror as something brutal and unflinching in this day and age. So yeah, not one to watch with mom and dad but still one to pick up as soon as possible.